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The Rally de Portugal (formerly: Rallye de Portugal) is a
rally
Rally or rallye may refer to:
Gatherings
* Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade
* Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event
Sport ...
competition held in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
. First held in 1967, the seventh running of the race, the
7º TAP Rallye de Portugal was the third event in the inaugural
FIA
FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used.
Fia or FIA may also refer to: People
* Fia Backs ...
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...
in
1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: ...
. The rally remained on the WRC calendar for the next 29 years, and after being dropped for 2002–2006, the event returned to Portugal in 2007. During the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, Rally de Portugal was a mixed event between asphalt and gravel. Currently it is an all-gravel event.
Rally de Portugal has been awarded "The Best Rally in the World" five times and in 2000 "The Most Improved Rally of the Year". The most successful driver in the history of the rally is
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
's
Markku Alén
Markku Allan Alén (born 15 February 1951) is a Finnish former rally and race car driver. He drove for Fiat, Lancia, Subaru and Toyota in the World Rally Championship, and held the record for most stage wins (801) in the series, until Sébastie ...
, who has won the event five times (1975, 1977, 1978, 1981 and 1987).
History
The Rally of Portugal was extremely popular but also infamous due to poor crowd control. During the 1970s and especially the 1980s, Portugal was known for spectators standing on the roadway even as the cars drove by, often resulting in near-collisions, and finally in the
1986 season a collision between cars and spectators. It was the last year the
Group B
Group B was a set of regulations for grand touring (GT) vehicles used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World Sportscar ...
cars dominated the WRC scene. And it was because of a tragic accident which occurred during the rally that the future of Group B cars came under scrutiny. The final blow came at the
Tour de Corse
The Tour de Corse is a rally first held in 1956 on the island of Corsica. It was the French round of the World Rally Championship from the inaugural 1973 season until 2008, was part of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge from 2011 to 2012, and ...
later that year with the death of
Henri Toivonen
Henri Pauli Toivonen (25 August 1956 – 2 May 1986) was a Finnish rally driver born in Jyväskylä, the home of Rally Finland. His father, Pauli, was the 1968 European Rally Champion for Porsche and his brother, Harri, became a profess ...
.
In the first section of the rally (Sintra), in the "Lagoa Azul" stage, Portuguese works
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
rally driver Joaquim Santos came over a crest in his
RS200 getting too loose through the corner.
Santos managed to avoid the crowd on the outside of the corner, but he was not able to avoid the crowd on the inside of the corner. The car left the road, plunging right into the crowd, killing three and injuring dozens more. After this accident all works teams withdrew from the rally.
The combination of poor crowd behavior, and the extreme speeds of Group B cars, was not only dangerous for the crowd, but also for the drivers themselves. Former world champion
Timo Salonen
Timo Salonen (born October 8, 1951) is a Finnish former rally driver who won the 1985 World Rally Championship season for Peugeot. It was commented of him that he stood out from other drivers, because he was overweight, wore thick glasses and smok ...
admitted at the '86 edition that he was scared to run first on the road. Walter Röhrl had his own theory on the crowd situation: "You just have to see the crowd as a wall and not as spectators."
It did not necessarily go any better in following years. At the
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...
edition a privately entered,
FR car driven by Portuguese rally car driver Joaquim Guedes plunged into the crowd. Luckily enough this only led to minor injuries, but the crowd control was not much improved. It was not until the early 1990s that the Portuguese rally improved crowd control. Crowds were no smaller, but were better-behaved and more aware of the risks involved in spectating.
In the 1980s, the rally had a special stage at the
Autódromo do Estoril
The Circuito do Estoril or Autódromo do Estoril (Estoril Circuit), officially known as Autódromo Fernanda Pires da Silva, is a motorsport race track on the Portuguese Riviera, outside of Lisbon, owned by state-run holding management company P ...
.
The last WRC edition of the Portugal rally for five years was run under heavy rain in
2001. It was won by
Tommi Mäkinen
Tommi Antero Mäkinen (; born 26 June 1964) is a Finnish racing executive and former driver.
Mäkinen is one of the most successful WRC drivers of all time, ranking fifth in rally wins (24) and third in championships (4), tied with Juha Kankkune ...
in a
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, popularly referred to as the 'Evo', is a sports sedan and rally car based on the Lancer that was manufactured by Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors from 1992 until 2016. There have been ten official versio ...
. In
2002, it was replaced in favour of Germany's
Rallye Deutschland
The ADAC Rallye Deutschland is a rally event held in Germany. The event was first held in 1982 and originally hosted by e.g. Frankfurt, Mainz and Koblenz. In 2000, the rally was relocated to the region around Trier. Previously part of the Europ ...
. In 2005, the organisers of the Rally of Portugal announced their intentions to rejoin the WRC, this time switching locations to an area around the
Algarve
The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municÃpios'' in Portuguese).
The region has it ...
. This means the character of the rally has changed. It is now fully driven on gravel. This is frowned upon by the Portuguese fans, who consider the Algarve stages less exciting, which is also reflected in lower attendance numbers. In 2006, it ran as an official WRC candidate event for the
2007 WRC calendar and was formally incorporated into the 2007 calendar on 5 July 2006. The
2007 Rally Portugal was the fifth round of the season and was won by
Citroën Total's
Sébastien Loeb
Sébastien Loeb (; born 26 February 1974) is a French professional rallying, rally, auto racing, racing and rallycross driver. He is the most successful driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won the world championship a record nin ...
.
After a year in the
Intercontinental Rally Challenge
The Intercontinental Rally Challenge was an FIA-sanctioned rallying series organised by SRW Events and Eurosport Events, and aimed to "give new opportunities to young or amateur rally drivers competing in recognised regional and international ral ...
schedule, the Rally Portugal returned to the WRC calendar for the
2009 season. The competition in the
2009 Rally Portugal
The 2009 Vodafone Rally de Portugal was the 43rd running of the Rally Portugal and the fourth round of the 2009 World Rally Championship season. It took place between 2-5 April 2009 and consisted of 18 special stages.
The event was won by Citroà ...
was set in the surroundings of
Faro, capital of the Algarve region, on twisty hill sections, with fast blind corners and narrow sections. The first stage in the
Estádio Algarve
The Estádio Algarve (Algarve Stadium), also known as ''Estádio Faro/Loulé'' (Faro/Loule Stadium), is an association football stadium located between Faro and Loulé municipalities, in the Algarve region of Portugal. The stadium has a capacit ...
(Algarve Stadium) was won by
Henning Solberg
Henning Solberg (born 8 January 1973) is a Norwegian rally and rallycross driver. Together with his female co-driver Ilka Minor, he currently competes in the World Rally Championship (WRC) with cars of M-Sport.
Solberg is the older brother of ...
, but when the rally really began,
Jari-Matti Latvala
Jari-Matti Latvala (born 3 April 1985) is a Finnish rally driver who has competed in the World Rally Championship (WRC). His co-driver for most of his career was Miikka Anttila, who co-drove for Latvala between the 2003 Rallye Deutschland and 2019 ...
took the lead. However, he soon suffered a big crash, rolling his
Ford Focus WRC 17 times down a steep mountain. The rally was eventually won by Loeb.
The 2020 edition of the rally was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
Results 1967–2001
2002–2006
Rally out of World Rally Championship
2007–2014
Rally back to World Rally Championship, but held in
Algarve
The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municÃpios'' in Portuguese).
The region has it ...
2015–
Rally back to its roots: North of Portugal
;Notes
*†– Event was shortened after stages were cancelled.
Multiple winners
''Embolded drivers are competing in the World Rally Championship in the current season.''
''A pink background indicates an event which was not part of the World Rally Championship.''
References
TAP Rallye de Portugal Roll of Honoura
Rallybase
External links
Official website
{{World rallies
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
Recurring sporting events established in 1967
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...